If we but knew the many souls who have come to the Earth in order to be with us in some way – some for a long time, some whose paths will cross ours only briefly – we would never feel alone in the physical or spiritual universe, for the connections of the heart and soul to these others would at all times convey to us that we are part of a group or family of souls. These are soul-friends who have incarnated with us and with whom we have often had many other-life experiences, both past and future.

Often, the world of physical reality compresses these relationships behind the closed doors of fleeting intuitive impressions, some of which peek out now and then and let us know that they are there, while some remain concealed for an entire lifetime behind degrees of difficulty we may be having with another, or behind time and circumstance that keep us apart from another when we would wish it otherwise.

Each soul incarnates with an understanding of the significant encounters it will have with those in its life with whom it will have the deepest experiences, and often it waits with a sense of longing and anticipation for this other or these others to arrive, sometimes living in a place of loneliness till then, with a wondering of where they are. Always, there is a reason for having to wait when this occurs, and always, the timing of significant soul-encounters happens when both souls have deemed a readiness to exist.

The willingness to open our eyes and the feelings of our heart in order to erase the restrictions we place on relationships by seeing others in terms of the roles they play, opens the doors to a deeper kind of understanding. With open eyes and an open heart, we are able to see past the outer reality to the inner, and in some cases to celebrate the brief but deeply heartfelt meeting we may have with a brother or sister soul. These are precious moments when they occur – moments of reunion that may then transform into the next moment of an unfoldment of what is possible – sometimes creating an ongoing reunion, sometimes, a parting of the ways.

When souls meet who have known each other before, there is an experience of ‘resonance’ that takes place that lets each know, if they are open to knowing, that something unusual is taking place on an energy level. A synergy occurs which is vibrational that lets the heart know that something powerful is going on. This kind of occurrence does not mean that we must respond in a particular way to it, for the destiny of each encounter and relationship has to be met on its own terms, and these include both the soul-level connection we may have with another, and also how the meeting fits into our present-day embodied life. Nevertheless, the awareness of having met another whom we recognize to come from the same ‘place’ as we have, is a deeply moving experience – one that many people have without knowing where the feeling comes from.

In many ways the occurrence of soul relationships is as natural as breathing. We are forever intertwined with the destinies of others, even if we remain physically alone and even if we feel painfully lonely. Nevertheless, we are united on an energy level with these others who may appear to us in dreams, or as someone whom we feel we know intimately, even though we have barely met them. This is a matter for celebration when it happens, for it is an illustration of the beauty and complexity of the spiritual universe which, with exquisite detail, interweaves the time and place of meeting of one soul with another, creating a perfection of encounter that serves the highest good of both souls, or in the case of groups of souls, the highest good of the group.

No matter where we find ourselves in life and no matter how different from our surroundings we feel we are, the souls we are meant to be with, at least for a time, are with us. Sometimes these souls serve as catalysts for a journey of self-discovery that will take us much further in a new direction than it would have if we had never encountered our surroundings, with all their perceived limitations and restrictions.

The future of soul relationships is one of greater awareness and greater choice in relation to how we are with others beyond the roles they present. Children, for example, may know themselves to have been other than the children of these particular parents in this particular lifetime; parents, similarly, may have an awareness of other relationships that have been played out with the one who is presently their child. Whereas before, such knowledge may have been baffling, we are, today, moving into a time when it will be enriching, for each will know the other as more than who they presently appear to be, and each will seek to serve the other in love and friendship, for there will no longer be anyone who is not perceived in this light.

Blessed is this time of awakening to the nature of the spiritual universe. May all beings come to recognize their oneness as souls and open to the great beauty and intimacy of a reality in which all are connected and no one is alone.